The members of Aligarh Alumni Association of New England (AAANE) had been discussing for a while how to support their local Food Bank. When they learned that an inspiring artist Mr. Iqbal Husain Salani was coming to US, they decided immediately to organize a musical evening, Shaame-e-Ghazal on March 5, with a fundraiser for the Food Bank. AAANE has an age-old tradition of supporting underprivileged, and in past have always donated the proceeds of its events to one or more charitable organizations.

Those who have any connection with Urdu poetry and literature, must also know the renowned great poet of his times, “Faiz Ahmad Faiz”. Year 2011 is the celebration of this poet’s hundredth anniversary and 2011 is proclaimed all over the world as the “Year of Faiz Ahmad Faiz”. AAANE also dedicated this evening to Faiz and in his honor Mr. Iqbal presented poetry or ghazals of Faiz Ahmad.

The program was initiated by a welcome address by the AAANE President, Mrs. Homaira Naseem. Mrs. Naseem welcomed the guests and artists and introduced Faiz saheb as, “ a poet of revolution” and told the audience that, “ Faiz contributed to the wealth of Urdu poetry through his medium of instruction and his voice against injustice”. She also recited some couplets from Faiz saheb’s poetry: “sitam ki rasmen bahut thin lekin, na thi teri anjuman se pehle”. Mrs.Naseem also mentioned that AAANE has recently donated proceeds from the last youth festival 2010 for purchase of Braille equipment for the Blind School in Aligarh, India and announced the latest SSESA award for 2011 to Ms. Ruchi Dana, a Medical School Graduate of Aligarh Muslim University, who has been accepted for admission in MBA program in MIT Sloan School of Management. Besides thanking all AAANE members and volunteers for their help and support in organizing Shaame-e- Ghazal, Mrs. Naseem specially thanked Ms. Shobha Shastri and India Kabab & Grill, Shrewsbury for co-sponsoring the event.

Mr. Ali Rizvi, the MC of the event then invited Dr. Farhan Syed to say few words about Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Dr. Farhan introduced Faiz as, “a poet of social conscience”.   Dr. Farhan told that,  “Faiz was born in 1911 in Sialkot, then part of India. Faiz had excelled in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English. He graduated from the Scotch Mission High School in 1927 with honors and received tutoring by the famous scholar, Sayyid Mir Hasan (also a teacher of Allama Iqbal). Faiz was a man with a very deep understanding of the struggles of our age. Inspite of his strong socialist beliefs, Faiz’s poetry reinterpreted and reiterated the theme of love. He fused classic traditional forms of poetry with new symbols derived from Western political ideas. To name few, Faiz saheb’s collection of poetry includes Naqsh-e faryadi (1943), Dast-e saba (1952), and Zindan Namah (1956)”.

Mr. Rizvi invited our special guest Ms. Jean McMurray, Executive Director of Worcester County Food Bank to the stage. Jean told the audience, “ how the Food Bank is a unique place, a place of opportunity where the community comes together to make incredible things happen – one pound of food, one dollar and one volunteer at a time. The food Bank is where all of this goodwill comes together- it is where your help becomes your neighbor’s hope for a better and brighter tomorrow. Today, in Worcester County, hunger is a problem that affects at least 86,000 people, including 33,000 children under age of 18”. She said, “ Hunger affects every age group and last year alone, Food Bank distributed 5.6 million pounds of food valued at $9 million to a network of 163 partner agencies. This 5.6 million pounds of food is enough for approximately 4.3 million meals”. She told that on the average Food Bank distributes 108,000 pounds of food in a week that makes about 83,000 meals.

Mrs. Sadia Chaghtai introduced the two artists for the event, Mr. Iqbal Husain Salani and Mr. Chris Pereji. The audience learnt that Mr. Iqbal Salani lives in Pakistan and belongs to the Delhi Gharana of music. “He is a versatile singer who can play harmonium and violin besides singing classical Indian, ghazals, bhajans and gurubani”, Dr. Chaghtai told the audience. Mr. Chris Pereji was introduced as an artist from New England, who is a performer and teacher of tabla, harmonium, guitar and keyboard. He belongs to the Farrukhabad gharana of music.

Shaame-e-Ghazal started with melodies on Violin, from old Hindi classics. The audience was thrilled by the mesmerizing music and this was followed by Ghazals from Faiz, a tea break, another round of Ghazals with audience request round and concluded with some more violin performance by Mr. Salani. Jean who did not understand any Hindi and any lyrics, later commented, “Music indeed has no language and this was so mesmerizing that I had to stay”.

To make the evening more enjoyable, Mrs. Maaria Alvi along with the help of Parisa and Hala took on the responsibility of serving warm dinner with siwaiyyan, chaat, samosas, gulab jamun drinks and hot tea; non-stop for the whole event.  Alia Rizvi and Amber Ali were gracious to baby-sit for parents of young children; they donated their time and earnings to the great cause. In the end we had a well-fed and very well entertained audience who praised AAANE for organizing such a lovely event. AAANE has donated 100% of the proceeds from Shaame-e-Ghazal along with matching donations from its members and 115 pounds of food to the Food Bank and hope to continue this tradition in future.

AAANE is very happy to announce its future event, “Youth Festival 2011” to be held in India Center on May 7, 2011 from 2-7 pm. For any information regarding this event or AAANE, please feel free to go to our website www.aaane.us or contact our president Mrs. Homaira Naseem at 508-869-6464 or by e-mail at homaira.naseem@gmail.com.

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